Disney Sues Sling TV Over New Short-Term Streaming Passes

Sling TV shook up the live TV streaming world when it introduced short-term streaming passes earlier this month. Those passes allow you to watch Sling for 1 Day, 1 Weekend, or 1 Week. But now, Disney is suing Sling over the plans.

“Sling TV’s new offerings, which they made available without our knowledge or consent, violate the terms of our existing license agreement,” a Disney spokesperson wrote.

Disney claims Sling’s parent company did not contact them prior to the launch of the plans. As soon as the short-term passes were announced, Disney says it asked Sling to remove Disney-owned channels from those passes, but Sling refused.

Disney has a long history of gouging live TV providers for cash. In the infamous preliminary injunction that killed Disney’s planned Venu Sports streaming service, it was revealed that Disney forces distributors to pay $9.42 per subscriber per month.

Not only that, Disney doesn’t allow distributors to carry just ESPN. It forces them to carry unpopular channels like Freeform and Disney XD if they want ESPN.

Now that ESPN has its own standalone streaming option, live TV providers have further reason to panic. For $19.99/month, you no longer have to scroll past Fox News and CNN and Nickelodeon and MTV to get your sports.

Sling has been losing subscribers at a steady clip. The service now has 1,785,000 subscribers. That’s a 27% decrease over the last 4 years.

I like Sling TV quite a bit. It’s not perfect, but its flexible channel packages allow you to pay a more reasonable amount for live TV.

On the other hand, Disney is running roughshod over the entire TV industry. Its ESPN Unlimited product could easily pull many subscribers from traditional TV packages. And Disney decided to simply buy Fubo outright, eliminating the company that launched the Venu lawsuit in the first place. As Disney announced it’s shutting down the standalone Hulu app, there will now be fewer live TV providers overall.

Disney also bought the NFL Network by forking over equity in ESPN. Rumors swirl Disney may also become the owner of MLB.TV. All of this is making Disney and ESPN remarkably powerful in the TV landscape. Given the current FCC’s disinterest in preventing monopolies, we can expect the company will continue to push other companies around.

With the consolidation of Hulu + Live TV and Fubo, the remaining live TV streaming providers will be YouTube TV (owned by Google, frequently distracted elsewhere), DIRECTV (owned by private equity firm TPG, so who knows what they’re up to), and Sling TV (owned by Echostar, which frequently faces bankruptcy). There’s also independent Philo and Roku-owned Frndly TV, both of which don’t even bother with major networks or sports channels.

Fewer options mean consumers will ultimately pay more. Or, as is becoming more common, they’ll just give up on live TV altogether. Disney may feel it’s getting screwed with this Sling TV product, but the fact is, live TV companies need to band together to keep the medium relevant. Too many of us are simply listening to podcasts, playing video games, scrolling our phones, or watching YouTube or Netflix. But maybe Disney doesn’t care.